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Speech Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:00  

Hey this is Justin Breen with BrEpic and author of international number one bestseller epic business. And if you really want to learn how to level up your life you should be listening to the time to shine today podcast with my good friend Scott Ferguson

Unknown Speaker  0:13  

time to shine today podcast varsity squad is Scott Ferguson weird Episode 191 with Justin Breen, the CEO of brevik. And basically he his company really helps companies solve problems through stories and creates viral and thought thought provoking stories. And he’s a man of few words. He’s very what I would call stoic, but it was a lot of fun. In the interview, I asked him a lot of the same questions I asked my other interviewees but the episode is shortened because he just gets concise and to the point and if you’re a business owner, that’s something that you really want to work with. So I strongly recommend you reaching out to Justin at Broderick if you’re really looking to level up so without further ado, sit back relax break out your notebooks because here comes my really good friend Justin brain from Epic let’s level up. Time to shine today podcast Barsky swatted is Scott Ferguson and I got my boy that was referred to me by my girl which plansee Justin brain from brevik brevik communications LLC you will grow your business brand with experts social media postings, crafting click worthy stories craved by local regional national media, successfully pitching them to outlets and providing customer service. Second to none. It is spearheaded by epic is by Justin Breen. And he has an author which I’m going to have a book giveaway at the end of this, where I’m going to purchase the book and Justin’s going to sign it send it out to you. And he’s a hard wired to seek out and create vital, thought provoking stories that the social that the media craves and he finds the best stories when he networks with visionary entrepreneurs, like my listeners, and executives who understand the value of investing in themselves and their businesses. Justin believes strongly in the power of introduction, and creates important relationships. Through those introductions. He is an extremely active member of entrepreneurs organization, Strategic Coach in abundance 360. And he is an incredible global network of visionaries and exceptional businesses. And Justin, thanks for coming on. Introduce yourself to the time to sign to the varsity squad. But first, what’s your favorite color? And why?

Unknown Speaker  2:26  

Blue?

Unknown Speaker  2:27  

Why is that?

Unknown Speaker  2:29  

I always have liked it.

Unknown Speaker  2:30  

Yeah, blue. I’m looking at the Atlantic Ocean right now. Well, it’s very blue. And I love it. That’s my little earnings. That got me here. So let’s get to the origins of of Justin here and then work into the Arabic.

Unknown Speaker  2:44  

Sure. So first of all, thank you for serving our country. The military means a great deal to me and my family. I never understood why more people don’t appreciate the military. So they really appreciate it. And yeah, so I’m 100% simplifier. Less is more. A lot of people talk a lot. I actually talk very little unless somebody asked me questions. So I started my company three and a half years ago with zero business background. Now I have a global company that only works with the top business brands and mindsets in the world. And it’s a lot of fun.

Unknown Speaker  3:16  

Awesome. So what was the we’ll call it a fork in the road moment. Got you to go on to your Breivik, you know from where you were and what you did before.

Unknown Speaker  3:26  

Sure. So the timeline is February 10 2017, to June 5 2017. So February 10 2017, I had my job salary cut in half as I was working full time as a journalist couldn’t find a job incorporated April 16 2017. My company’s called epic. Over the next six weeks, I reached out to 5000 people to get my first five clients got my fifth client, June 1 2017, resigned June 2. And then Robert feeder, he’s the top media columnist in the Midwest did a story I started my own firm in June 5.

Unknown Speaker  3:56  

Love it. And so give us like the top five companies that you represent and help level up.

Unknown Speaker  4:04  

That’s interesting, because no one’s ever I’ve done hundreds of interviews. No one’s ever asked me that. So I’ll give you a couple of examples. I’ve worked with companies as large as all state and University of Illinois. I work with a ton of entrepreneurs. Now, they match my mindset. And I only work with people with three attributes in their mindset. And that’s visionary, abundance investment. And so those people with those three attributes can only fit into two types of categories. So they’re either running high six figure to 10 figure businesses, they serve their families whenever they want to and they do what they like to do and what they’re good at. or they’re going to be one of those people they’re not there yet revenue wise but they will be so it eliminates What do you cost or charge it eliminates cost scarcity mindset and so I just work with people have that mindset around the world. So whether that’s Africa’s largest speaking company, that speaker’s bureau company that went global because you can’t speak in person anymore, to innovative one of the loudest Just as fat companies in the world that created at a stay at home or in person office space, basically h fac device to a solopreneur, who’s, you know, follow through $100 crumpled up $100 bill at him when he was 11 years old. Here’s the money you’re gonna need to, you know, with your mom when you’re homeless, so and then it doesn’t none of that matters. It’s just my company to solve the problem.

Unknown Speaker  5:27  

Love that. Love it. And you know that I’ve been told that people every day scroll the height of the light Eiffel tower on their cell phones. That’s so they scroll, scroll a little you know how to live photography. So what do you do? If you don’t mind? Give us a little bit of your secret sauce to create thumb stopping content? What is what some of your secret sauce that does that Justin?

Unknown Speaker  5:47  

Yeah, so my company doesn’t solve the problem. So from a journalistic perspective, companies hire my first one. I was a journalist for 20 years, and I created my entire business model based on how PR firms annoyed me for 20 years. So I know a story that, as you can hear my kids screaming in the vomit No problem, man.

Unknown Speaker  6:03  

Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  6:06  

Right. Right. So the it’s funny that the Yeah, so my, I know how to notice stories that journalists actually care about. And then I’m not sending my contacts across the world event story. So it just cuts through all the noise and nonsense, but but I hear over and over and over and over and over is we’re tired of being the best secret out there. So they have this great business or brand or they’ve written a great book, or they’ve pivoted since COVID, or whatever that is, and then they just want to be a news and media at a high level to create validity and credibility for their brand, both short term and long term. So that’s what my company does.

Unknown Speaker  6:38  

I love it. It’s like you just said and like back in the day, maybe 12 years ago was shift, right? So you know, shifting and not pivoting. I call it shift it. So that’s what we do. Across the board. As you know, my coaching. We help people ship it. So let’s get you saw the movie Back to the Future. I hope so many times. Okay, so let’s get that DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back to the 22 year old I guess you’d be a journalist or starting in the journalistic world. What kind of knowledge nuggets as we call them. your time to shine today? What kind of knowledge nuggets you dropping on 22 year old Justin helped them level up last through shorten his learning curve?

Unknown Speaker  7:16  

Yeah, so that’s a good question. And if I had been asked that question even a year ago, I wouldn’t know how to answer it. But I’ve been asked that question so many times, because it’s a good question that I have the answer to it now. And so I started this business with zero business background, I got a full academic scholarship to the University of Illinois, I got a 32 on a AC t. So I have some type of brain really good for some, whatever. But it’s so never the word entrepreneur growing up. Never this this life wasn’t even. It never even existed ever even thought about it existing until I started this. And so if I could go back to my my 22 year old self, and you heard my kids screaming in the background, but so I don’t care if my kids go to college, I’m sure there will because my wife’s a doctor and I got 32 on a CTS I’m sure they’ll go to college. If they do go to college, the only thing I care about is that they take entrepreneurial classes taught by actual entrepreneurs, not somebody who’s been in a, you know, ivory tower job for 30 years and has no idea what they’re doing. So that’s all I really care about in terms of that. And that’s what I would have done.

Unknown Speaker  8:18  

Love it. And so we talked about the dash here at time to shine today that little line between incarnation date, your expiration date. How does Justin want his dash remembered after he’s dead and gone?

Unknown Speaker  8:31  

Yeah. Be a good dad. And a good dad. Yeah, all this other stuff, meaning and so. So my company is insanely profitable. I work with the best people on the planet, none of that matters. Because I’ve seen so many out you don’t want to be the richest guy in the cemetery. And so I I know a lot of billionaires and multimillionaires and and so many times I just asked him how how’s your family many times like I never had a family or I’d never spend time with my family and I hear the hurt or I see the hurt. I’m not wanting to be us all this other stuff. meaningless.

Unknown Speaker  9:04  

Absolutely. Brother family is everything. So give me a weakness of yours.

Unknown Speaker  9:09  

Oh, so I’m useless to society, in almost everything. And so most entrepreneurs think they’re great at everything, or a lot of them and they try to be great at everything. I’m actually terrible at almost everything, things that a trained monkey, a dumb monkey could do. I I can’t do any of that. So like installing a light bulb doing a puzzle with my children following directions useless. But in terms of connecting people on a global level and getting people in news at the highest level, there are very few people in the world that are better at it than I am. So I just do my entire day is doing what I like to do what I’m good at and love it. None of there’s no, there’s no deviation from this, you farm out what you suck at then, well, any successful entrepreneur. If they’re not good at it, they don’t like to do it or do it. They either don’t do it or they find the best person in the world to do it. So that’s absolutely

Unknown Speaker  9:55  

I love it. And that’s why I have interns to do the stuff that I really don’t do because we drop four to 500 It was a week, you know, and we couldn’t be able to do that keep up. If I was to do it all myself. I love that. So what do people misunderstand most about Justin?

Unknown Speaker  10:11  

Yeah, so I only work with the point 1% of mindsets on the planet. So whether they’re dirt broke, or they’re billionaires, people with that mindset, they’ll make the investment people with the wrong mindset, they’ll make excuses. There are no excuses. When you get to the highest level, you just make the investment. And so 99.9% of people have no idea what I’m talking about. And that’s fine, because I only partner with the point 1%. But the 99.9% think I come off as arrogant. And that’s completely the opposite of arrogance, because I’m actually just 100% confident in my abilities. arrogant people think they’re great at everything. I’m terrible at almost everything. Opposite.

Unknown Speaker  10:48  

Yeah, I appreciate that humility, man. That’s, that that’s not heard of, in a lot of my interviews, you know, I’m saying a lot of people say I’m great, I’m this and that, let’s just fine. You know, but as long as you’re doing out of a place of service, but people like you, that’s humble enough to say they suck at a lot of stuff, a lot, everything, everything.

Unknown Speaker  11:05  

So my wife, our sons are eight and six. And my wife says she has three children, because I’m basically a child, at most things. Just in terms of what I’m really good at, though. You’re good class genius.

Unknown Speaker  11:17  

So if you were to lose everything right now, it was through what you’ve built at brevik. What’s the first thing you would do to get the ball rolling again?

Unknown Speaker  11:30  

Yeah, so I’m in several the top entrepreneurial organizations in the world, and many of them since COVID. have lost 100% 95% of their businesses within a couple days. Absolutely. Okay, whatever, figure it out. There are no excuses. Just starting the company. That’s, that’s what I mean. So like people with the wrong mindset, they’ll just make an excuse. There are no excuses. No, you just get it. I mean, you’re in the military. You make an excuse in the military. somebody dies. Yes, sir. Right. There are no excuses.

Unknown Speaker  11:57  

Yeah, I just say and I say it affectionately, but losers make excuses. You know, winners make adjustments. That’s what they do.

Unknown Speaker  12:05  

That’s why I love it. I love it. You know, I’m so that’s interesting that you say losers. I don’t believe in the word losing. Winning or learning. I just Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  12:11  

Okay. Then the learners. They they make excuses, then maybe they don’t. But I deal with a lot of people I coach, you know, you know, eight figure executives and they started there asked me how to get people through there. That worked for them through that adaptability, especially during this time, I went through the crash of Oh, wait, oh nine. And I experienced, you know, an income of, you know, a couple million a year down to about 50,000. So it gets a little bit a little entrepreneur life.

Unknown Speaker  12:37  

I mean, so that’s so most so again, all I do is simplify everything. Blah, blah, blah, and they see patterns. That’s all I do. So I have not met. Because I’ve talked to 1000s of the world’s top entrepreneurs and starting my company, as a journalist, I’ve interviewed 1000s and 1000s of people. So all I did is take all that bla bla bla and patterns. So I have not met one of the following you know, the top entrepreneurs in the world, I have not met one who has not overcome at least one of the following four things so least one most or two or three in some or all four. So here there. One is bankruptcy or potential bankruptcy to depression three, the highest level of anxiety you can imagine for likely and are possible traumatic experiences as a child or young adult. So that’s what separates entrepreneurs at the highest level from everyone else’s entrepreneurs at the highest level, Don’t make excuses. They just figure it out and get it done by everybody else and just get a job or they complain about their love. Get it done.

Unknown Speaker  13:28  

They’ll Love it. Love it. So what’s your definition of a life well lived?

Unknown Speaker  13:32  

By that’s a great question, Scott.

Unknown Speaker  13:35  

I’m here on time to shine today baby we’re not one of the top 100 coaching and personal development podcasts for nothing my friend.

Unknown Speaker  13:41  

Yeah, so that’s a good question. And here’s why. So again, you asked me how I wanted I just wanted to be a good dad and my father died when I was 13 he was a soldier and well thank you. Thank you. So he was a soldier in World War Two he’d be 104 if he was alive now he was 61 when I was born, so I know right wow but wow was that’s my life that was like wow so it’s so I know what that’s like to not have a dad around so that’s why I’m so actively involved with my children and being a good dad because because I know what it’s like not have that so dad all this other stuff is whatever.

Unknown Speaker  14:17  

That is the definition that that’s fantastic, man and hey, time to shine today. varsity squad. It’s conference I’m here with my really good friend Justin Breen, the CEO of br epic, and we’re going to move into our leveling up lightning round and Justin, we got about six or seven questions. And you can’t give me any you’re great with short answers. You can’t give me any explanations. All right, so you’re gonna fire off top your head you got five seconds producer a ring and buzzer if you take longer you’re ready. Yep, let’s level up. What’s the best leveling up advice Justin’s ever received.

Unknown Speaker  14:49  

Do what you like to do and what you’re good at.

Unknown Speaker  14:51  

Love it share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Unknown Speaker  14:55  

I run six times a week outside no matter the weather conditions. I’ve done that for 20 years

Unknown Speaker  14:58  

and even shy People so it gets cold there. Oh man. So other than your own website and of course time to shine today.com my shameless plug. What is another website that just goes to the level up?

Unknown Speaker  15:11  

Strategic Coach is the top crew for entrepreneurs in the world. I’ve been

Unknown Speaker  15:14  

on their baby. And they’re so if I’m in my doldrums a little bit, not really feeling it, Fergie read this book. What’s the book?

Unknown Speaker  15:22  

Number one book is blue fishing by Steve Sims.

Unknown Speaker  15:25  

You know, I have to read that it’s literally sitting on I should go then grab it, but I don’t want to read it.

Unknown Speaker  15:30  

Number one,

Unknown Speaker  15:31  

if you text what’s your commonly used emoji?

Unknown Speaker  15:35  

I don’t use emojis.

Unknown Speaker  15:36  

Good. I figured you wouldn’t very short, short man of words there. If you could be one age and don’t frickin lie to me if you’d be one age for the rest of your life, and still have the knowledge you have, and continue to learn and level up. What age is it? Physically? 4040 God, how old are you if you don’t mind sharing? 4343 got it, man. I’m coming up on 50 and I still would take 28 all day. Anyways, so named the person that had the most profound impact on your life. My father, beautiful. Thank you for saying that. Your favorite charity and organization you’d like to give your time and or money to

Unknown Speaker  16:13  

gives us so many. Schuler scholar foundation. Beautiful.

Unknown Speaker  16:19  

And last question and you can elaborate just a little bit on if you’d like but what’s the best decade of music 60s 70s 80s or 90s 80s 80s? My man big hair don’t care. And you got everything in the 80s man you have rap you that started with Run DMC you had like I said the big hair metal bands glam rock, British Invasion Irish invasion with you two decade ever. Best decade ever. So Justin, how can we find your brother?

Unknown Speaker  16:47  

Justin Bryan on LinkedIn. I think by the time this airs, I’ll have 25,000 followers.

Unknown Speaker  16:51  

Heck, yeah, it’s awesome. So squad, Justin is a big believer in in simplifying that less is more. The attributes of vision, abundance and an investment are very key. He’s, he helps companies solve problems. And he does a lot through stories and the connections he has to get those stories out. You know, he wants you to like if you’re younger, or if you’re just kind of moving up, you want you to maybe take classes that are taught by entrepreneurs, and not just career scholars, people that can actually show you real life situations. He uses an ambition is to be remembered as a great dad. And basically, he says that, you know, entrepreneurs Don’t make excuses. They make adjustments. And this is the epitome of a man that does that. And Justin, you level up your help you level up your wealth, your man a few words. You’re humble, you’re hungry. I appreciate you coming down to time to shine today and rocking the mic and we look forward to collaborating again, brother.

Unknown Speaker  17:47  

That was a tremendous recap that you just did there. That was amazing how your brain synthesize That was incredible to watch that.

Unknown Speaker  17:56  

I appreciate that. Justin, we’ll talk to you soon. Okay.

Unknown Speaker  17:58  

Thank you.

Unknown Speaker  18:00  

Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast. Proudly brought to you by Southern Nugent real estate real estate excellence, who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com slash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see a recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends how to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up. It’s our time to shine.

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